This week on Arizona illustrated a special presentation of this year's Emmy winning stories school in the time of COVID.

You know, I know a lot of kids who go from class to math to class and ask, and you don't want to drop the D word of depression, but that certainly is what it feels like.

The flying memorial by the biggest drill, though, has come Premiere is meeting the veterans in the some of the stories that have never been heard before all about the vaccines.

I'm deeply proud of what these guys are going to end thi pandemic, right?

It's science, it's immunology.

It's virology, it's vaccinology And I see it coming.

I really do.

Hearing Isaiah when it comes to dealing with both negative emotions and negative thoughts going in nature helps me get out of that funk in my head.

And OSIRIS-REx touch and go.

going in, going in, and touchdow Welcome to Arizona Illustrated, I'm Tom McNamara.

Each year, regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognize and reward excellence in their broadcasting communities with Emmy Awards.

This year, Arizona Illustrated was the most nominated series in the Rocky Mountain region, leading the pack with 13 nominations.

And from that list, five of our stories were awarded the Emmy.

In this episode, we'll take a look back at those stories.

first up, a pandemic related story.

On learning basis, Charter School at Aro Valley taught a mix of kids bot in the classroom and from home during the fall of 2020.

Our Emmy winning team Cáit Nísíomón and John de Soto spent some time with a few of the kids and their teachers to hear about what's working and what isn't.

The style of kids that we get a basis is a kid that is is very, very motivated.

The workload here is can be rather daunting.

And you give me one again.

The challenge is that having this hybrid model where half are here and half hour presents challenges that nobody ever really thought of and we were in uncharted territory.

You know, something seems to always go wrong.

And the second tower.

They come from what they do and they they come from the water as much as we try to deliver the same learning experience to kids at home that are here.

It's just it can't happen in my in my mind.

They're going to be missing something.

Yeah.

All right.

Hussein, sorry can you say again what a noun means a year a year?

Say A is Latin for we have we all have a document so physically that we can see it projected and online.

We can see here that the other members of the class are watching the same slide required to document the lives that they take in their day to day lives.

I this wish it was integrated better.

I can't switch back and forth fast enough to see who online.

If their hands are raised makes it difficult for me to kind of manage who I'm talking to in person with online.

You know, your parents might what you are doing.

We got back in school and I believe it was October 12 It was awesome because I'm someone who relies on my friends a lot and I will hang out with them.

And it's a big mental like just yes.

And it was a weird just not being able to do that every day.

I have kids who when you mention that we might be going back into virtual learning completely, they just want to cry.

And then I have kids who are begging for it.

It's frustrating to watch kids that you know, are in pain, and it could be that school is their social place.

Maybe they're an only child.

It could be that they are queer and at home.

They're not out, but at school they are, and they're losing that opportunity to spend their day out and proud.

It could be that maybe nobody is home with them.

I have a lot of really lonely kids looking at me through a computer screen because mom and dad are at work and they're just home with a screen all day long.

You know, I know a lot of kids who go from class to nap to class to nap, and you don't want to drop the D word of depression.

But that's certainly is what it feels like.

You know, a lot of sleeping to not have to live through things, and you hate to see that in a 16, 17 year old or 13, 14 year old.

When scientists think this is someone, I have an idea because I have asthma and COVID more than less affects your lungs.

So people with diseases and their warts and all people are more will be have a higher chance of being either dead or getting it.

And that makes for this particularly interesting.

So I've been at home schooling since March.

I don't really get to go outside much the most in the house during the entire week on the weekends.

Sometimes I'll go over to my friend's house, but rarely are.

Usually, I think my my grades now aren't as good as far as being in person because I'm just not understanding it.

Well, Mark and my thought being shown to me physically.

So I get up at 7:00 a.m. and then I set up my computer and I log in to the Microsoft Teams and I join the call and prepare for the first class So I get out at twelve and then I do homework for about three hours and I end up working the night shift at the Restaurant Green ever Asian Bistro, eat and sleep.

How can I help you?

My mom is a high risk individual.

She has both asthma and diabetes, so we made the decision as a family that I would just stay at home to continue distance learning.

Back in March, when we first started, I was definitely very stressed and anxious, and I was a little worried about how AP tests were going to be before they announced it was going to be online.

And also the fact that I was going to be taking my S.A.T.

and retakes.

And I thought back then it was like the determining factor for college admissions.

So I was very stressed during that period of time.

During World War two, the B-17 bomber, also known as the Flyin Fortress, was instrumental in the strategic air campaign against German military and industrial targets.

Some of the men who crewed the B-17 are still with us.

Producer Gage Judd takes us up to experience firsthand the flying memorial.

It's an honor to fly this airplane, just to fly this airplane.

It's so rare and it represents such a courageous generation of people.

I never get into this airplane that I don't think about those 19, 20, 21 year old young airmen, pilots and, for that matter, enlisted members that were manning the guns in an airplane.

They they hardly knew.

I mean, they only had about 165 hours total time when they came to the B-17.

It's like today's real comfortable, you know, it's not pouring down rain, not real cold, like what the guys have to, you know, experience back in the day.

And that's part is nobody's shooting at you.

So that's even better.

So the way we do it is we take the airplane kind of barnstorming fashion go city by city, kind of like a traveling circus.

Fantastic experience, it being able to see everything and being able to walk around the plane as it's flying is do you feel like you're walking in their shoes even for a couple of minutes because you're literally sitting on the same table that somebody else did to drop bombs?

You're sitting in the same seats that a navigator would use to pilot his plane back home?

Definitely takes you back in time.

I've always been a history buff, and something like this is real special to me because I do feel strongly that, you know, we don't have enough history shared in our schools and things like that for people have an opportunity to learn about, you know, the different sacrifices that our men and women made throughout the years keep our great country, the country that it is.

Probably the biggest thrill, though, has come from areas meeting me, the veterans and Harry, some of the stories that have never been heard before.

You will have a veteran coming out here who probably is in a walker of some sort or even a wheelchair.

We get him up in the airplane, you helping them.

But once he gets in the airplane, he becomes a teenager again.

They zip through the whole fuselage.

They go to whatever station they had during combat.

They know where all the controls are.

They can close their eyes and touch everything.

And as you probably saw moving around inside, you've got to bend over to be careful where you are.

Hit your head, you know, stumble on different pieces of machinery on the floor.

These guys, they just, you know, become a teenager again.

So it's it's magic, really to see what happens.

The effort to vaccinate Arizona continues with over 60% of people vaccinated, yet questions and concerns over the vaccines remain deep to.

Bhattacharya is an associate professor at the University of Arizona's Department of Immunobiology.

His lab is a leader in researching the safety, efficacy and the role the vaccines will play in getting us past the pandemic.

Now we spoke with him months before the vaccine was released in 2020, and the resulting story was awarded an Emmy.

Look, as a scientist, you know, I'm not just sitting back dispassionately advising people to get the vaccines that I wouldn't be willing to get myself.

We're all in the middle of this pandemic and we all want out of it.

I have seen all the data.

And if there were any concerns, believe me, I would not be taking that vaccine.

But after having seen the data, you know, if I could be first in line, I absolutely what my name is deep to, Bhattacharya, an associate professor in the Department of Immunobiology here at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

My lab has been long interested in understanding antibody responses and immune responses.

Now we're transitioning to understanding how those immune responses work after the vaccine.

Vaccines are really one of the if not maybe the most important biomedical breakthrough of mankind.

If you think about the number of lives that it saved, it's really astronomical.

I mean, in general, what a vaccine is trying to do is to get your body to start an immune response that is similar to what would happen if you got infected, but without getting you sick.

The first ones that we're seeing and the ones that are extraordinarily effective right now are called M RNA vaccines.

The virus is what's called an RNA virus so that when it infects yourselves, it deposits a bunch of nucleic acids or genome called rival nucleic acids.

That's how the virus encodes proteins.

It makes more copies of itself, and then it starts to infect other cells.

The M RNA vaccines are basically taking one very tiny part of what the virus would be making anyway.

And the most important part for the immune system to recognize and block virus infection.

So it's sort of the perfect world because it's mimicking the key important parts of the virus, but it's only one part of it.

So you can't make more virus.

So it's just focusing that immune response on exactly what you want.

So the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, you know, I think first off, the one thing that we learn from these trials is that they're extraordinarily efficacious.

They reduce the risk of disease by about 95% relative to those who hadn't been vaccinated.

So that's outstanding.

I mean, that's right up there with some of the best vaccines that we have.

I think some people are wondering, how is it that we managed to get these vaccines out so quickly?

And is it something we need to be worried about?

one of the things that really allowed the rapid development of these vaccines was decades of basic research into understanding how coronaviruses work.

The clinical trials and the phases are the same as any other vaccine trial.

That part hasn't been accelerated really at all, except by the fact that the pandemic is raging.

And so we've got a much better chance to see whether the vaccine is working and protecting people or not.

So I think that there really isn't much concern at all in terms of how fast these vaccines were developed because it's not the important parts that were accelerated.

You know, the person I was really worried about was my father, who is old and he has asthma, and that's the concern.

Just this morning, he got his first dose of Moderna, so I am ecstatic internally.

It gives me a sense of relief, knowing that the likelihood tha my father, who would be at great risk of severe disease is in all likelihood going to be protected.

I'm deeply proud of what these guys are going to end this pandemic, right?

It's science, it's immunology, it's virology, it's vaccinology, and I see it coming.

I really do.

I mean, I think my wife and I are, you know what?

The efficacy of these vaccines, we're getting ready.

We're planning our summer travel as is right now.

So I think things are going to get better sooner rather than later.

With the health of our planet challenged by climate change, novel viruses and pressure on natural resources, rising environmental leaders will have their hands full when guiding future generations toward a safer, cleaner and more unified world.

As our Emmy winning Arizona illustrated team found out, young people like Isaiah Haley are good reason for optimism.

I grew up here.

I've been here all my life, and I love you here.

I really do.

It's a unique place and I don't think anywhere else is quite like it.

When I was younger, I had a lot of social anxiety and going out in public and asking for like an extra napkin or some catnip or something, it was a really difficult task for me.

I think Tucson being the welcoming environment that is allowed for me to reall move past that and grow into being comfortable with this is how I feel.

This is what I think and this is me.

When it comes to dealing with those negative emotions and negative thoughts going in in nature helps me get out of that funk in my head You're able to just be you and just exist in that moment and not worry about anything else that's going on around you Yeah, it helps a lot.

Isaiah came into the Ironwood Tree Experience Urban Field Station, and he walked in with a sense of purpose and conviction about why he should be a part of this program.

Getting with with it.

We work with youth in our community because they are the future leaders.

We work with the natural environment because that is the system that supports us, our health, ultimately putting those together, connecting those youth with our natural environment, both in the urban area and outside the urban area and building that sense of place.

Isaiah has been involved with us for two and a half years, and through that time he's engaged in three different internships and he's part of our Youth Action Corps leadership team.

He seems like he is ready to start.

Something has a sense of eagerness and excitement about his place in the future.

Hiking with my peers, it's really different.

There's beauty in everyone's eyes out there.

They're just taking in and to be able to share that with another person and get to know how they see things.

You're able to see things differently.

We're really looking forward at one level providing skills and a level of competency and comfort in our natural spaces.

But in the short term, how can they take that and turn that into something that will help them make the next steps in their life?

The opportunity to get outside and be immersed in the natural environment with the sounds and the smell, the wind in your hair and even some of the discomforts, that's a challenging part.

How do you work with the natural environment?

How do you not fight against it?

How do you appreciate the things that you're seeing and smelling and even the discomfort?

Those are things that make us feel alive.

Oh.

Jumping into like freezing water when you're OK with the little bit of suffering, it also gives you a sense of appreciation because it's like, Yes, I could feel it.

The blood in my veins rushing and my veins are constricting.

And you know, that's amazing that I'm able to even feel that I'm fortunate enough to experience this.

It helps me when I'm dealing with emotional problems that would have been struggling or stopped being able to fall back on, you know what, if they were to jump in this 40 degree water and I could still run out and I'm fine, I could get through this.

It's like it's pushing you like a motivation.

Like, you know, this isn't anything like you could take on the world in a sense.

I think for me, that's really important.

On October 20th, 2020, southern Arizonans and the world watched as the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft unfurled its robotic arm and briefly touched the asteroid Bennu.

Our producer Brian Nelson and photographer editor Nate Hoffman were there to capture a unique behind the scenes look at every anxious and exhilarating moment that culminated with a successful capture of dust and pebbles from the surface of the ancient asteroid.

More than 200 million miles from Earth.

Now, say on over Texas, forex is descending below 25 meters, OK, really close, and I want to remind you it's the five meter crossing.

That's the really critical one.

We're only a couple of minutes away from that.

So the spacecraft has one key decision left to make its calculating right now the probability that it's going to come down either on a hazardous area, as we defined on that hazard map or in a safe area.

All my senses are on that call out right now.

I really want to hear that we are go for tags, so that's just a couple of minutes away.

So you can see here that this is a pretty daunting terrain that we're coming down here.

There's giant boulders all around the Nightingale site even some large rocks inside the crater that we do not think the spacecraft would survive, at least with the ability to return back to Earth if it made contact.

Attitude control system has transitioned to touch and go mode, right spacecraft, getting ready to make contact with the asteroid surface here .

Ten seconds, 987654321.

And liftoff of OSIRIS-REx, its seven year mission.

To boldly go to the asteroid Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx is a NASA mission to send a robotic spacecraft out to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu, map that asteroid in great detail to select a site on the surface and send the spacecraft down to collect a sample of material We're then going to bring that sample back to the Earth to analyze in our laboratories.

We're going to an asteroid that dates from the formation of our solar system.

Literally the oldest rocks in our planetary system, older than the Earth and represents the building blocks of our planets, and we're really going after the biggest questions we ask ourselves as a species precisely where did we come from?

And are we alone in the universe?

And just the kind of show you this is the orbit of a Cyrus rex.

When we were designing the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, we performed an extensive astronomical campaign to characterize the target.

And when we got to Bennu, we actually saw we did a pretty good job.

We really did see this interesting spinning top shape that looks like, you know, it's bulging at the equator.

But what we didn't get right and it was a big oops was it was rough and rugged and rocky, and at first glance there was nowhere that looked like we could collect a sample from.

And so I knew right away we were in for a challenge that we were going to have to roll up our sleeves and we had some work to do in order to figure out how we're going to get a sample off the surface of this asteroid.

Earlier, we departed our orbit around the asteroid, so we're flying over the sunlit side of the asteroid once we fire the thrusters for the checkpoint maneuver.

We're actually going to start descending down towards the asteroid surface.

So this means we're going to be on our way to make contact.

Overextended, say, on a war zone checkpoint burn has completed, OK, we're heading down towards the asteroid's surface at this point, so we've got one more firing of thrusters with the spacecraf to get us lined up for the sample acquisition event.

We call that the match point.

Once he gets Pats match point, it's going to be telling us, how likely am I to contact a hazard?

And we want that to be zero, but it may not be especially early on.

It could be like there's a 30% chance I'm going to contact a hazard.

So you're kind of trending this hazard calculation all the way down to five meters before the surface.

It's that final decision on the spacecraft where we know we've committed and this is it, and we're going in to hit the surface and hopefully get that sample.

Oh, Rex has processed its next message position uncertainty is 0.5 meters predicted tag lateral offset is 1.7 meters, hazard probability is 0%.

O Rex has descended below the five meter mark.

The hazard map is go for tag expected in 50 seconds of going in and we have touchdown.

Oh.

That's downstairs.

Oh, all right.

Sampling is in progress.

Oh, Rex MSA, I don't know, Rex up.

Sample collection is complete in the back of Leyburn has executed on the outside.

All right.

A little overwhelmed right now.

I'll have to say it's been pretty intense several minutes here.

I can tell you that everything went just exactly perfect, which is kind of the hallmark of this team.

We have consistently beaten expectations over and over again.

We have overcome the amazing challenges that this asteroid has thrown at us, and the spacecraft appears to have operated flawlessly.

Congratulations to all of the Arizona illustrated winners and nominees.

And to view each of today's stories in their entirety, go to AZPM.org/Arizonaillustrated Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

See you next time.